Submission #3

Everytime it's getting harder to do what's right. 

I feel a hollowness in my stomach when I think about doing it. Everytime, I find myself scrounging for ways to get out of doing it, for reasons fit enough to excuse me from going ahead with it. I have the means, I have the time, I have the logic that deems it the right thing to do, but I no longer have the will. 

I know it's right but it doesn't feel right. I feel guilty, but I still don't want to do it. I want to stay put, but above all I want my staying put and not doing it to be ok. But I know that's not gonna happen, and I know it's the right thing because if I don't do it I will regret it. 

Will I? 

If I'm being honest I will regret not doing it, not because it's the right thing to do, but because not doing it will give them the right to reproach me about it. 

I will regret not doing it because I hate it when they reproach me, when they give me hell about it for weeks on end. 

I guess that makes me a pretty bad person. 

Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am. 

And maybe that's ok. 

Then again, it probably isn't. 

Submission #2

I am a girl. 

A girl who believes, fiercely, that I should be treated as an equal when it comes to social, economic and cultural interactions. I believe that the fact that I am a woman shouldn't make anyone uncomfortable when Imean to pay for a meal or when I talk about politics or ethical and moral problems. I believe that the fact that I'm a girl shouldn't create any parameters for my behavior or my development as an adult. I don't believe that the fact that I'm a girl should intimidate anyone in any situation. None at all. 

I am a feminist. I believe that women who decide to dedicate their full time to raising their children are equally as valuable as those who go out to work. Also that those who study are equally as valuable as those who don't. I believe the same thing for men. Above all I believe women and men, when recognized to have the same capacities, be them intellectual, social or emotional, deserve the same treatment. 

I believe in gender equality. I am a girl and a feminist, and it is not because I have been oppressed throughout my life. It is not a defense mechanism or a reaction to specific events in my life. I am not a poor oppressed girl who has turned to feminism, who believes what she does because of a trauma. I had the privilege and the good fortune of growing up within a community where girls and boys are valued equally, where both succeeded and both failed. Where both are simply human. Living side by side. Working together and competing in a healthy and productive way. And above all, believing that there is no need for differentiation between one and the other.

I am a feminist by choice. 

What are you?